In Australia’s Outback, a controversial cash crop is booming: Carbon

By Michael E. Miller and Frances Vinall The Washington Post February 10, 2023 at 1:00 a.m. EST

Mulga trees grow thick on Carol Godfrey’s Tinnenburra Station in southern Queensland, Australia, in December 2022. (Matthew Abbott for The Washington Post)

CUNNAMULLA, Australia — Carol Godfrey gazed out her helicopter cockpit at the miles of mulgas glowing green and gold in the dawn light. For decades, the bushy trees had been little more than a last resort for farmers needing to feed their cattle in the arid Outback. But recently, the humble mulgas have become a hot commodity.

It’s not the hardwoods themselves that are valuable, however. It’s what they store: carbon.

A few years ago, during a severe drought, Godfrey and her husband Lindsay, the former mayor of Cunnamulla, had almost been forced to sell this sprawling family farm in the south of the state of Queensland. But then they turned to carbon farming. Last year, carbon credits earned them half a million dollars.

“We were so close to being wiped out,” the 68-year-old said over the roar of the chopper blades. “Now, no matter the weather, the carbon income comes in regularly every year.”

Here in the “mulga belt,” which stretches into northern New South Wales, is the unassuming epicenter of Australia’s roaring carbon-farming industry. In this area alone, roughly 150 properties have collectively made at least $300 million from carbon credits in less than a decade, according to government records.

Carol Godfrey prepares her Robinson 22 at first light to inspect the vast property where she manages cattle and a carbon project. (Matthew Abbott for The Washington Post)

Godfrey checks on her cattle and other farming infrastructure as she flies above Tinnenburra Station. (Matthew Abbott for The Washington Post)

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